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Erst

adverb
1.
At a previous time.  Synonyms: at one time, erstwhile, formerly, once.  "Her erstwhile writing" , "She was a dancer once"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Erst" Quotes from Famous Books



... last clause, for I was now in a condition to feel a rather warm shame over my erst weak-knee'd collapse before a sheet and an illuminated turnip. I took the packet to my bedroom, shut the door, and sat myself down by the open window. The garden lay below me, and the dewy meadows beyond. In the one, ...
— At a Winter's Fire • Bernard Edward J. Capes

... deck'd thy garland erst, Upon thy grave be wastefully dispersed? O trees, consume your sap in sorrow's source, Streams turn to tears your tributary course. Go not yet hence, bright soul of the sad year, The earth is hell when ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... Dispersed through fifty lovely faces, Sovereign of the slipper's order, With all the rites thereon that border, Defender of the sylphic faith, Declare—and thus your monarch saith: Whereas there is a noble dame, Whom mortals Countess Temple name, To whom ourself did erst impart The choicest secrets of our art, Taught her to tune the harmonious line To our own melody divine, Taught her the graceful negligence, Which, scorning art and veiling sense, Achieves that conquest o'er the heart Sense seldom gains, and never art; ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... cellar of my Friend, And, coming forth again, Knew naught of all this plain, And lost the flock I erst was wont to tend. My soul and all its wealth I gave to be His Own; No more I tend my flock, all other work is done, And all my ...
— The Story of a Soul (L'Histoire d'une Ame): The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux • Therese Martin (of Lisieux)

... seyde erst, whanne comen is the May, That in my bed ther daweth me no day, That I nam uppe and walkyng in the mede, To seen this floure agein the sonne sprede, Whan it up rysith erly by the morwe; That blisful sight softneth al my sorwe, So glad am ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth

... shining hand may place the starry crown. And so the holy Sacrifice ascends, A sweet oblation for that wailing band Thy regal form in mourning hues is draped, Thy pleading Miserere ceaseth not Till, at its blest entreaty, Love descends, As erst, from His rent tomb, to Limbo's realm, And leads again the freed, exultant throng, Within the gleaming gates of gold and pearl, To bask in fadeless splendor, where the flow Of the "still waters" by the "pastures green" ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

... 4 Religion, erst so venerable, What art thou now but made a fable, A holy mask on folly's brow, Where under lies Dissimulation, Lined with all abomination. ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... a delicious Eastern garden, rich with the perfume of many flowers, shaded by spreading trees, vocal with the sound of many fountains; and there, at the request of the fraternity, he related his wondrous adventures to the men who had erst ...
— The House of Walderne - A Tale of the Cloister and the Forest in the Days of the Barons' Wars • A. D. Crake

... Feeho[FN87] called the Broad-backed; and Corpre Cromm the Bent; An Ailill, he from Breffny to help of Ailill went; A three whose name was Angus-fierce was each warrior's face; Three Eochaid, sea-girt Donnan[FN88] had cradled erst their race; And there fell seven Breslen, from plains of Ay[FN89] who came; And fifty fell beside them who all had ...
— Heroic Romances of Ireland Volumes 1 and 2 Combined • A. H. Leahy

... the nymphs supreme in grace, And maidens of the minstrel race, Monkeys and snakes, and those who rove Free spirits of the hill and grove, And wandering Daughters of the Air, In monkey form brave children bear. So erst the lord of bears I shaped, Born from my mouth as wide ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... Whom erst in anguish lying For an unborn life's desire, As a dead thing in the Thunder His mother cast to earth; For her heart was dying, dying, In the white heart of the fire; Till Zeus, the Lord of Wonder, Devised ...
— Hippolytus/The Bacchae • Euripides

... With summons to the bards For the sweet flowing song, And wizards' posing lore And wisdom of Druids. In the court of the sons of the distributor Some are who did appear Intent on wily schemes, By craft and tricking means, In pangs of affliction To wrong the innocent, Let the fools be silent, As erst in Badon's fight,— With Arthur of liberal ones The head, with long red blades; Through feats of testy men, And a chief with his foes. Woe be to them, the fools, When revenge comes on them. I Taliesin, ...
— The Mabinogion Vol. 3 (of 3) • Owen M. Edwards

... his duty, and deserved our gratitude. We found the town pretty full of visitors who had driven up, and there were continual fresh arrivals. Therefore, we soon moved away to secure a guide to the erst entombed city. We had been much amused, watching the novel mode of refreshment indulged in by the active little animal that had so speedily brought us on our journey. He had been unharnessed and taken to a bare spot thickly covered with dark lava sand. This he seemed ...
— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux

... support to all,— But to no purpose, since nor veins suffice To hold enough, nor nature ministers As much as needful. And even now 'tis thus: Its age is broken and the earth, outworn With many parturitions, scarce creates The little lives—she who created erst All generations and gave forth at birth Enormous bodies of wild beasts of old. For never, I fancy, did a golden cord From off the firmament above let down The mortal generations to the fields; Nor sea, nor breakers pounding on the rocks Created them; ...
— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... have thundered We both were lost, if both of us not sundered. Fold now thine arms, and in thy last look rear One sigh of love, and cool it with a tear. Since part we must, let's kiss; that done, retire With as cold frost as erst we met with fire; With such white vows as fate can ne'er dissever, But truth knit fast; and ...
— The Hesperides & Noble Numbers: Vol. 1 and 2 • Robert Herrick

... shall the traveller come, That erst beheld me blooming, His searching eye shall vainly roam The dreary ...
— Literary Remains (1) • Coleridge

... had been before him, to a high command in the Ottoman Navy. It was a curious illustration of the various turns of fate here below to find in 1869 the Sultan, the Commander of the Faithful, sending the Giaour Hobart Pasha, the erst Secesh blockade-runner, to the island of Crete to put down blockade-running on the part of the intensely patriotic but occasionally troublesome Greeks. Hobart was entrusted with unlimited powers, and he accomplished his mission with so much vigour and with so much skill ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha

... ceremonies was a spontaneous product. For how "Her fresh benignant look Nature changes at that lorn season when, With tresses drooping o'er her sable stole, She yearly mourns the mortal doom of man, Her noblest work! So Israel's virgins erst With annual moan upon the mountains ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... wealth Up Worm ship's side; While some few hollow-eyed Left either for the sack-sailed boat; But this, though not remote, Was worst to mount, and whoso left it once Scarce ever came again, But seemed to loathe his erst companions, And wish and ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti

... the effrontery to bestow so outrageous an appellation upon such an exploit. Does not the second volume of Miscellaneous Tracts, in which the said treatise may be seen, explicitly admonish us to remember that Michael Geddes, LL.D., was erst a chancellor of the Church of Sarum? "Quid Romae faciam?" he upbraidingly asks in one ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851 • Various

... on the king's throne, donned the royal dress and dispensed justice and equity, and affairs prospered; wherefore the lieges obeyed him and the subjects inclined to him and many were his soldiers. Now the king, who erst had plundered Abu Sabir's goods and driven him forth of his village, had an enemy; and the foe mounted horse against him and overcame him and captured his capital; wherefore he betook him to flight and came ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... and solemn night! A thousand bells ring out, and throw Their joyous peals abroad, and smite The darkness, charmed and holy now! The night that erst no name had worn, To it a happy name is given; For in that stable lay new-born The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven, In the solemn ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... Heaven the rays, Piercing some eyelet in our cavern black, Ended their viewless track On thee to smite Solely, as on a diamond stalactite, And in mid-darkness lit a rainbow's blaze, Wherein the absolute Reason, Power, and Love, That erst could move Mainly in me but toil and weariness, Renounced their deadening might, Renounced their undistinguishable stress Of withering white, And did with gladdest hues my spirit caress, Nothing of Heaven in thee showing infinite, ...
— The Unknown Eros • Coventry Patmore

... being displayed to his advantage. I have no prospect of seeing my chere adorable till winter, if then. As for you, I pity you not, seeing as how you have so good a succedaneum in M. G.; and, on the contrary, hope, not only that Edmonstone may roast you, but that Cupid may again (as erst) fry you on the gridiron of jealousy for your infidelity. Compliments to our right trusty and well-beloved Linton and Jean Jacques.[104] If you write, which, by the way, I hardly have the conscience to expect, direct to my father's care, who will forward ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... thalamis jugatae, et comis nondum positis ephaebi; chaste matrons cry out with Andromache, [296]Concubitum mox cogar pati ejus, qui interemit Hectorem, they shall be compelled peradventure to lie with them that erst killed their husbands: to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants, eodem omnes incommodo macti, consumed all or maimed, &c. Et quicquid gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens, saith Cyprian, and whatsoever torment, ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... / and all her courtesy, Whene'er I think upon it, / full well it pleaseth me, How we did sit together / when erst I was thy spouse! Well in sooth with honor / might ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... lip the boy gazed long; Unheeded and unmarked a throng Might there have met, so fixed his soul On Memory's unfolding scroll. He knew not that the hours crept by, And sullen grew the deepening night; Again he met his mother's eye, As erst in joyous days and bright, And heard the accents clear and mild, Now hushed in death, breathe o'er her child A fervent blessing and a prayer; Again his father's silver hair Gleamed on his sight, although the tomb Had closed him ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various

... blaze Wraps earth in a voluptuous haze Of lambent splendor; where the skies Drop balm as erst ...
— Daisy Dare, and Baby Power - Poems • Rosa Vertner Jeffrey

... Oueen-mother heard this, her wit took wings for joy and she adorned the slave-girls of Al-Abbas after the finest fashion. Now he had ten hand-maids, as they were moons, whereof his father had carried five with him to Baghdad, as hath erst been set forth, and the remaining five abode with his mother. When the dromedary-posts[FN430] came, they were certified of the approach of Al-Abbas, and when the sun easted and their flags were seen flaunting, the Prince's mother came out to meet her son; nor ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... of land, and as every purchaser pleased himself in the matter of architecture, the style of building may be called that of "the free and easy." Many estates have been divided since then, thousands of acres in the outskirts being covered with houses where erst were green fields, and in a certain measure Birmingham owes much of its extension to the admirable working of the several Societies. As this town led the van in the formation of the present style of Land and Building Societies, it is well to note here their present ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... to the race of man, 330 Brave Chiefs they were, and with brave foes they fought, With the rude dwellers on the mountain-heights The Centaurs,[23] whom with havoc such as fame Shall never cease to celebrate, they slew. With these men I consorted erst, what time 335 From Pylus, though a land from theirs remote, They called me forth, and such as was my strength, With all that strength I served them. Who is he? What Prince or Chief of the degenerate race Now seen on earth who might ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... not grown, A boy in the fight, who very boldly Drew from the warrior the bloody spear, The son of Wulfstan, Wulfmaer the young; 155 He let the hard weapon fly back again; The point in-pierced, that on earth he lay Who erst his lord strongly had struck. Went then an armored man to the earl, He would the warrior's jewels fetch back, 160 Armor and rings and sword well-adorned. Then Byrhtnoth drew his sword from its sheath, Broad and brown-edged, and ...
— Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dream of the Rood • Anonymous

... erst had left Our Home-Rule argosy, And he shone bright, our course was right, The "flowing tide" ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99., November 29, 1890 • Various

... every Muse and Grace auspicious wait, As erst thy Handmaids, when, with brow serene, Gay thou didst rove where Buxton views elate A golden ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward

... and well, may Heaven's high name be bless'd for't! As erst, ere treason couch'd a ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... deeds. Therefore I am returned, lest confidence 140 Of my success with Eve in Paradise Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure Of like succeeding here. I summon all Rather to be in readiness with hand Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst Thought none my equal, now be overmatched." So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all With clamour was assured their utmost aid At his command; when from amidst them rose Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell, 150 The sensualest, and, after Asmodai, ...
— Paradise Regained • John Milton

... still hours of advanced night, without recalling to memory the tragic events of those days, (handed down as they have been by their fathers, who were eye-witnesses of the transaction,) and peopling the surrounding gloom with the shades of those whose life-blood erst crimsoned the once pure waters of that now nearly exhausted stream; and whose mangled and headless corpses were slowly borne by its tranquil current into the bosom of the parent river, where all traces ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... standing still, till that a deathful dart Did strike him through the ribs so ill that scarce it mist his hart. The dart out hal'd quickly, his guts came out withall, And so great streames of bloud that he for faintnesse downe gan fall. The Negros seeing this, how he for dead doth lie, Who erst so valiant prou'd iwis, they gladly, shout and crie: And then do minde as there to enter in his place, They thinke so many wounded were the rest would yeld for grace. We then stand by the pike, and foure row on our boat, Their darts among vs fast they ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, v5 - Central and Southern Europe • Richard Hakluyt

... Where tears and silence long have been my lot. Time, to my heart, that higher love hath brought With which the lower can no more be sought; Time hath the latter into exile driven, And, to the first, myself hath wholly given, And consecrated to its service true The heart and hand I erst ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. III. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... the young woman. Her voice was sweet, but it sounded to Natalya like the voice of Lilith, stealer of new-born children. Her rosy cheek seemed smeared with seductive paint. In the background glistened the dual crockery of the erst pious kitchen which the new-comer profaned. And between Natalya and it, between Natalya and her grandchildren, this alien girlish figure seemed to stand barrier-wise. She could not cross the ...
— Ghetto Comedies • Israel Zangwill

... destinie With too strong hand warped our miserie. The Comets flaming through the scat'red clouds With fiery beames, most like vnbroaded haires: The fearefull dragon whistling at the bankes, And holie Apis ceaseles bellowing (As neuer erst) and shedding endles teares: Bloud raining downe from heau'n in vnknow'n showers: Our Gods darke faces ouercast with woe, And dead mens Ghosts appearing in the night. Yea euen this night while all the ...
— A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay; and Antonius by Garnier • Philippe de Mornay

... ist nun das Geschick der Grossen fiier auf Erden, Erst wann sie nicht mehr sind; von ...
— The Art of Literature • Arthur Schopenhauer

... attempted cheerfulness. He said he never went there now. "No absinthe there," he muttered. It was the sort of thing that in old days he would have said for effect; but it carried conviction now. Absinthe, erst but a point in the "personality" he had striven so hard to build up, was solace and necessity now. He no longer called it "la sorciere glauque." He had shed away all his French phrases. He had become a plain, unvarnished ...
— Enoch Soames - A Memory of the Eighteen-nineties • Max Beerbohm

... as usual, late upon the road, Pick up what Europe saw long since explode. If this you doubt, ask Harvard, she can tell How many fragments there from Deutschland fell; How many mysteries boggle Cambridge men That erst in England boggled Carlyle's pen, And will, no doubt, be mysteries again; And also what great Coleridge left unsung. He, too, saw Germany ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... brain, By odd obstetrics freed from pain, Bore Pallas, erst my mortal foe, Pray listen to my tale of woe. This Progne takes my lawful prey. As through the air she cuts her way, My flies she catches from my door,— Yes, mine—I emphasize the word,— And, but for this accursed ...
— A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine • Jean de La Fontaine

... a story to tell you all, so listen to what I have to say," quoth he; whereupon, without more ado, he told them all about Sir Richard, and how his lands were in pawn. But, as he went on, the Bishop's face, that had erst been smiling and ruddy with merriment, waxed serious, and he put aside the horn of wine he held in his hand, for he knew the story of Sir Richard, and his heart sank within him with grim forebodings. Then, when Robin Hood had done, he turned to the Bishop of Hereford. ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle

... her. Beauty is the same In Anno Domini as erst B.C.; The type is still that witching One who came, Between the furrows, from the bitter sea; 'Tis but to shift accessories and frame, And this our heroine in a trice would be, Save that she wore a peplum and a chiton, Like any modern on ...
— Collected Poems - In Two Volumes, Vol. II • Austin Dobson

... And I have cried unto the heavens above, "It was not this, O God, I pledged to love; Unsteady gait, wild brain and selfish heart—" Flashed the red lights of danger "till death part." Tell me, soul-searching ray, if erst I strove To cherish, feed and guard where grew no love. We sailed away to far Australia's shore, Oh, the long days passed near the ocean's roar. For him on whom I leaned in hope and trust, Proved but coarse clay that crumbled soon to dust. Drinking and gambling, sharks that swallow whole, ...
— Victor Roy, A Masonic Poem • Harriet Annie Wilkins

... cushion lay, For Bidasari's wear. When night had come Young Bidasari waked. Her parents dear Then bathed her, and her tender body rubbed With musk and aloes. Then she straight was clad In garments of her choosing. Her dear face Was beautiful, almost divine. She had Regained the loveliness she erst possessed. The merchant was astonished, seeing her. He told her then that they would leave her there, "Branch of my heart and apple of my eye, My dearest child, be not disturbed at this. I do not mean to work thee any harm, ...
— Malayan Literature • Various Authors

... he said to Alaeddin's mother, "Go and tell thy son that I abide by the promise which I made him, but an if he avail unto my daughter's dowry; to wit, I require of him forty dishes of pure gold, which must all be full of jewels [such as] thou broughtest me [erst], together with forty slave-girls to carry them and forty male slaves to escort and attend them. If, then; thy son avail unto this, I will marry him to ...
— Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp • John Payne

... wind, that erst had joined him in his grief, Now whispered strangely to the walnut leaf; Into the bird's song pleading notes had crept, The happy fountains in the gardens wept, And e'en the river, with its restless roll, Seemed calling ...
— Successful Recitations • Various

... the plump and lusty dame, With high erected chest and vigorous mien, Was erst th' enamored knight Don Quixote's flame, The fair Dulcinea, of ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... will, he says, tell the tale of "stalwart folk that lived erst while," of "King Robert of Scotland that hardy was of heart and hand," and of "Sir James of Douglas that in his time so worthy was," that his fame reached into far lands. Then he ends this preface with a prayer that God will give him grace, "so that ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... the Angel Jehovah, thinking it was a mere man. There he gained a great victory over self, and he received the new name, 'Israel.' And on the next day, a little farther to the south, he met his erst-while angry and murderous brother in peace and ...
— My Three Days in Gilead • Elmer Ulysses Hoenshal

... could be hid, and fondly think She had some jewels in the earth, but now ye dig Into her very bowels, to recover morsels sweet She erst with deglutition had drawn in. The rocks Your toils dissolve, to find perchance some treasure Lying there. Is yonder land of gold alone Your care? Observe along these shores The wheezing engine clank—the stamper ring. Once, hawks and ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... a minute did the murderess stand gazing on the corpse—the corpse of one erst so beautiful; and her countenance, gradually relaxing from its stern, implacable expression, assumed an air of ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... ihm, sie sprach zu ihm: Was lockst du meine Brut 10 Mit Menschenwitz und Menschenlist Hinaus in Todesglut? Ach, wuesstest du, wie 's Fischlein ist So wohlig auf dem Grund, Du stiegst herunter, wie du bist, 15 Und wuerdest erst gesund. ...
— A Book Of German Lyrics • Various

... zuerst die Idee allgemeiner Menschenrechte abgeleitet und rein von Selbstsucht vertheidigt haben.—WEINGARTEN, Revolutionskirchen, 447. Wie selbst die Idee allgemeiner Menschenrechte, die in dem gemeinsamen Character der Ebenbildlichkeit Gottes gegruendet sind, erst durch das Christenthum zum Bewusstsein gebracht werden, waehrend jeder andere Eifer fuer politische Freiheit als ein mehr oder weniger selbstsuechtiger und beschraenkter sich erwiesen hat.—NEANDER, Pref. to Uhden's Wilberforce, p. v. The rights of individuals and the justice due ...
— A Lecture on the Study of History • Lord Acton

... some rural, calm, sequestered spot, Where healing Nature her benignant look Ne'er changes, save at that lorn season, when, With tresses drooping o'er her sable stole, She yearly mourns the mortal doom of man, Her noblest work, (so Israel's virgins erst, With annual moan upon the mountains wept Their fairest gone,) there in that rural scene, So placid, so congenial to the wish The Christian feels, of peaceful rest within The silent grave, ...
— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... this profoundest gulf, princes of the hopeless gloom, if we have lost the place we erst possessed, when, clothed with brightness, we dwelt in those celestial, happy realms; yet, however great our fall, 'twas glorious, nought less than all did we hazard, nor is all lost—for, behold regions wide and deep extending to the utmost bounds of desolate Perdition ...
— The Visions of the Sleeping Bard • Ellis Wynne

... a good deal of rivalry among our generals. This proved harmful to the service. The Goddess of Victory discovered this, and at times forsook us. Many possessions that were conquered had to be given up, and we had to bow before those whom erst we had humiliated. But Orange was never restored.—[This ...
— The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, Complete • Madame La Marquise De Montespan

... since coming to this land First in your sanctuary I bent the knee, Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst He told me all my miseries to come, Spake of this respite after many years, Some haven in a far-off land, a rest Vouchsafed at last by dread divinities. "There," said he, "shalt thou round thy weary life, A blessing to the land wherein thou dwell'st, But to the land that cast thee forth, a curse." ...
— The Oedipus Trilogy • Sophocles

... discourses may I see You mock me with a forged pedegree. If sonne you bee to Ioue, as erst ye said, In making loue vnto a mortall maide You work dishonour to your deitie. I must be gonne; I thanke ye ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various

... has got me into a terrible mess by a misprint in last Chapter—confound my cramp fist—regarding which Old Splinter (erst of the Torch,) has ever since quizzed me verv ...
— Tom Cringle's Log • Michael Scott

... derring-do, Burdeners of ocean's steeds, Strength enough it seems they needed All to slay a single man; When shall we our hands uplift? We who brandish burnished steel— Famous men erst reddened weapons, When? ...
— The story of Burnt Njal - From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga • Anonymous

... cruel still, unhappy, view. Opposing winds may stop thy luckless way, And spread fell famine through the suffering crew, Canst thou endure th' extreme of raging Thirst 45 Which soon may scorch thy throat, ah! thoughtless Youth! Or ravening hunger canst thou bear which erst On its own flesh hath fix'd the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... coming of my punish'd duchess. Uneath may she endure the flinty streets, To tread them with her tender-feeling feet.— Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook The abject people gazing on thy face With envious looks, laughing at thy shame, That erst did follow thy proud chariot-wheels When thou didst ride in triumph through the streets.— But, soft! I think she comes; and I'll prepare My tear-stain'd eyes to ...
— King Henry VI, Second Part • William Shakespeare [Rolfe edition]

... radiance beam'd Amid the air, such odors wafting now As erst came blended with the evening gale, From Eden's bowers of bliss. An angel form Stood by the Maid; his wings, etherial white, Flash'd like the diamond in the noon-tide sun, Dazzling her mortal eye: all else appear'd Her THEODORE. Amazed she saw: the Fiend Was ...
— Poems, 1799 • Robert Southey

... advanced period of his life, re-visited the church in a far different guise; and, to discharge his vows to the archangel for his safe return from the crusade, prostrated himself before the shrine which he had erst assaulted with the fury of his arms.—The year 1158 was, almost above every other, memorable in the history of St. Michael's Mount. Henry Plantagenet, who, two years before, had there received the homage of his subjects of Brittany, then returned in pilgrim weeds, accompanied by Louis VII. whose ...
— Architectural Antiquities of Normandy • John Sell Cotman

... to be taking these words as equivalent to transgressing the command that requires all our heart, and she began quickly, 'Oh! but I didn't mean—' then a sudden thrill crossed her whether there might not be some truth in the accusation. Where had erst the image of Owen Sandbrook stood? First or second? Where was now the image of the boy? She turned her words into 'Do you think I am doing so—in ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... maiden, banish from thy mind the thought That I could love another. Thou dost reign Supreme, without a rival, in my heart, And I am thine alone; disown me not, Else must I die a second deadlier death, Killed by thy words, as erst by ...
— Sakoontala or The Lost Ring - An Indian Drama • Kalidasa

... roast, Evoking many a hearty toast, And purchase from the throngs who came To buy cheap goods in friendship's name. Friend Ben, dates back a warm and true heart To days of Mackintosh and Stewart. Beside where Aumond and Barreille Their fate together erst did try, In the old "French Store," on whose card Imprimis was J. D. Bernard. "Grande Joe," still sturdy, stout and strong. Long be he so! Will o'er my song, Bend kindly, and perhaps may sigh, ...
— Recollections of Bytown and Its Old Inhabitants • William Pittman Lett

... allgemeiner Menschenrechte abgeleitet and rein von Selbstsucht vertheidigt haben.—WEINGARTEN, Revolutionskirchen, 447. Wie selbst die Idee allgemeiner Menschenrechte, die in dem gemeinsamen Character der Ebenbildlichkeit Gottes gegrundet sind, erst durch das Christenthum zum Bewusstsein gebracht werden, wahrend jeder andere Eifer fur politische Freiheit als ein mehr oder weniger selbstsuchtiger and beschrankter sich erwiesen hat.—NEANDER, Pref. ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... is the Venice of my youth and age, Its spell a void, its charm a vacancy. Rosy Romance, thou owest many a page, Ay, many that erst grew beneath mine eye, To what was once the loved reality Of this true fairy-land; but I refuse To deck with Art's fantastic wizardry A haunt of Trade. Mine is not Mammon's Muse, She will not sing for hire of Soaps, ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, September 3, 1887 • Various

... his rueful eyes, He saw the thatched-roof cottage rise: The prospect touched his heart with cheer, And promised kind deliverance near. A stable, erst his scorn and hate, Was now become his wished retreat; His passion cool, his pride forgot, A Farmer's ...
— Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse • Various

... and solemn night! A thousand bells ring out, and throw Their joyous peals abroad, and smite The darkness—charmed and holy now! The night that erst no name had worn, To it a happy name is given; For in that stable lay, new-born, The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven, In the solemn ...
— Graded Poetry: Seventh Year - Edited by Katherine D. Blake and Georgia Alexander • Various

... seasoned strength and generous rage, Fell, at their last encounter, to the skill Of him the swart of look, the stern of will, Broad-shouldered SALISBURION. Such defeat Valiant and vigorous veteran well might fret. He erst invincible, the Full of Days, The Grand Old One, full-fed with power and praise. ACHILLES-NESTOR, to no younger foe, Because of one chance slip and casual throw, The Champion's Belt is ready to resign; Nor may his foe the final fall decline. So "Greek ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, June 25, 1892 • Various

... sustain it. O Beatrice, my gentle guide and dear! She said to me: "That which o'ermasters thee A virtue is which no one can resist. There are the wisdom and omnipotence That oped the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth, For which there erst had been so long a yearning." As fire from out a cloud itself discharges, Dilating so it finds not room therein, And down, against its nature, falls to earth, So did my mind, among those aliments Becoming larger, issue ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 75, January, 1864 • Various

... stretching his hands toward the glittering effigy—"Hear thou, and be propitious! Thou, who didst all-triumphant guide a yet greater than Quirinus to deeds of might and glory; thou, who wert worshipped by the charging shout of Marius, and consecrated by the gore of Cimbric myriads; thou, who wert erst enshrined on the Capitoline, what time the proud patricians veiled their haughty crests before the conquering plebeian; thou, who shalt sit again sublime upon those ramparts, meet aery for thine unvanquished pinion; shalt drink again libations, boundless libations of rich ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... acknowledg'd victor in the field, What thanks, dread sovereign, shall thy toils reward! Such honours as delivered nations yield, Such for thy virtues justly stand prepar'd: When erst on Oudenarde's decisive plain, Before thy youth, the Gaul defeated fled, The eye of fate[6] foresaw on distant Maine, The laurels now that shine around thy head: Oh should entwin'd with these fresh Olives bloom! Thy Triumphs then would shame the pride ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753),Vol. V. • Theophilus Cibber

... to other things, she began to think of Marcel to whom she was going, and while running over the recollections reawakened by the name of her erst adorer, asked herself by what miracle the table had been spread at his dwelling. She re-read, as she went along, the letter that the artist had written to her, and could not help feeling somewhat saddened by it. But this only lasted a moment. ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

... noise in the street here, alack, bawled back. Loud on left Thor thundered: in anger awful the hammerhurler. Came now the storm that hist his heart. And Master Lynch bade him have a care to flout and witwanton as the god self was angered for his hellprate and paganry. And he that had erst challenged to be so doughty waxed wan as they might all mark and shrank together and his pitch that was before so haught uplift was now of a sudden quite plucked down and his heart shook within the cage of his ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... deep Of her old life; and this has been, men say, But this we know not, who have only sleep To soothe us, sleep more terrible than day, Where dead delights, and fair lost faces stray, To make us weary at our wakening; And of that long-lost path to the Divine We dream, as some Greek shepherd erst might sing, Half credulous, of easy Proserpine And of the lands that ...
— Ballads and Lyrics of Old France: with other Poems • Andrew Lang

... formalen Unterschied festgestellt zwischen '[a]l[)a]m, dem Status absolutus, 'Ewigkeit,' und '[a]lm[a] [[a]l^em[a]] dem Status emphaticus 'Welt.'—Sollte uebrigens die {259} Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch Einfluss griechischer Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der Zingirli-Inschrift bedeuted [Hebrew: BTSLM] noch bloss 'in ...
— The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism • Franz Cumont

... music and painting in Italy meet with prompt response in Flanders; in the many-gabled streets of Nuremberg we hear the voice of the Meistersinger, and under the low oaken roof of a Canterbury inn we listen to joyous if sometimes naughty tales erst told in pleasant ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske

... among thy people. And if thou wilt not do so, thou shalt receive worse, for the emperor will come here, as king shall to his own, king most keen; and take thee with strength, lead thee bound before Rome-folk;—then must thou suffer what thou erst despisedest!" ...
— Brut • Layamon

... and my worthy lord; The faithful love that did us two combine In marriage and peaceable concord, Into your hands here do I clean resign, To be bestowed unto your children and mine; Erst were ye father, now must ye supply The mother's part also; Lo, here ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... obscuring mote, (Not without tears expelled, and sharpest pain,) From swarthy limbs the galling chain With shock on mighty shock we smote, Whereby with clearer gaze we scan The heaven-writ message that we bear for man. Not ours to give, as erst the Genoese, Of a new world the keys; But of the prison-world ye knew before Hewing in twain the door, To thralls of custom and of circumstance We preach deliverance. O self-imprisoned ones, be free! be ...
— Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia • Various

... whose language is of Latin and Celtic origin, his muse inspires deep interest and pleasure. His extraordinary oriental poem, "Lalla Rookh," has been translated into Persian, and delights the literary sons of Iran as it erst thrilled the imagination and heart of all persons of poetic temperament in the British Isles. In the city of Dublin, a statue has been erected to his memory, close by the old senate, now used as the Bank of Ireland, and near ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... brow, Stiffen in the silver grass; And what though robins flock and pass, With subdued and sober call, To the old year's funeral; Though October's crimson leaves Rustle at the gusty door, And the tempest round the eaves Alternate with pipe and roar; I sit, as erst, unharmed, secure, Conscious that my store is sure, Whatsoe'er the fenced fields, Or the untilled forest yields Of unhurt remembrances, Or thoughts, far-glimpsed, half-followed, these I have reaped and laid away, A treasure of unwinnowed grain, ...
— Lyrics of Earth • Archibald Lampman

... redoubtable in war, Reclined that banner, erst in fields unfurl'd, That like a deathful meteor gleam'd afar, And brav'd the mighty ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... new cloud-fleece pierced and passaged through This was and is and will be evermore Coloured in permanence? The glory swims Girdling the glory-giver, swallowed straight By night's abysmal gloom, unglorified Behind as erst before the advancer: gloom? Faced by the onward-faring, see, succeeds From the abandoned heaven a next surprise. And where's the gloom now?—silver-smitten straight, One glow and variegation! So, with me, ...
— The Poetry Of Robert Browning • Stopford A. Brooke

... —Gracious powers! which erst have opened the lips of the dumb in his distress, and made the tongue of the stammerer speak plain—when I shall arrive at this dreaded page, deal not with me, then, ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

... woo the shade By the lofty pine-trees made, That cast a gloom like night, Ere day's last glories fade. Thy solitary voice The same bold anthem sung When Nature's frame was young. No longer shall rejoice The woods where erst it rung! ...
— Roughing it in the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... forever weeps, seeking her child, And in her rage has struck the land with blight; Trinacria mourns with her;—its fertile fields Are dry and barren, and all little brooks Struggling scarce creep within their altered banks; The flowers that erst were wont with bended heads, To gaze within the clear and glassy wave, Have died, unwatered by the failing stream.— And yet their hue but mocks the deeper grief Which is the fountain of these bitter tears. ...
— Proserpine and Midas • Mary Shelley

... erst was well, tho was it bet A thousand folde, this nedeth it not require Ago was euery sorowe and euery fere." ...
— Lectures on Language - As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. • William S. Balch

... ego, a poke, cuss, eld, enthused, mesalliance, tollable, disremember, locomote, a right smart ways, chink, afeard, orate, nary a one, yore, pluralized, distingue, ruination, complected, mayhap, burglarized, mal de mer, tuckered, grind, near, suicided, callate, cracker-jack, erst, railroaded, chic, down town, deceased (verb), a rig, swipe, spake, on a toot, knocker, peradventure, guess, prof, classy, booze, per se, cute, biz, bug-house, swell, opry, rep, photo, cinch, corker, in cahoot, pants, fess up, exam, bike, incog, zoo, secondhanded, getable, outclassed, ...
— Practical Grammar and Composition • Thomas Wood

... are sere, The woods are drear, The breeze that erst so merrily did play, Naught giveth save a melancholy lay; Yet life's great lessons do not fail ...
— The Upward Path - A Reader For Colored Children • Various

... will draw neere, and with fayre pleasing shew, 720 Wellcome great Pompey as the Siren doth The wandering shipman with her charming song. Pom. O how it greeues a noble hauty mind, Framed vp in honors vncontrouled schoole, To serue and sue, whoe erst did rule and sway What shall I goe and stoope to Ptolomey, Nought to a noble mind more greefe can bring Then be a begger where thou wert a King, Ach. Wellcome a shore most great and gratious prince Welcome ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous

... in den Schlachten, Wo die Hottentottentaktik Lasst ertonen fern und nah Auf dem Hottentottentamtam Hottentottentattratah; Wo die Hottentottentrotteln, Eh' sie stampfen stark und kuhn. Hottentottentatowirung An sioh selber erst vollzieh'n, Wo die Hottentotten tuten Auf dem Horn voll Eleganz Und nachher mit Grazie tanzen Hottentottentotentanz,— Dorten bin ich mal gewesen Und iclh habe schwer gelitten, Weil ich Hottentotten trotzte, Unter Hottentottentritten; So 'ne Hottentottentachtel, ...
— The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought • Alexander F. Chamberlain

... breaking. She has given her affections to Clancy— in that last letter written, lavished them. And they have been trifled with—scorned! She, daughter of the erst proudest planter in all Mississippi State, has been slighted for a Creole girl; possibly, one of the "poor white trash" living along the bayous' edge. Full proof she has of his perfidy, or how should Darke know of it? More maddening still, ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... first, in rival song Of brother orbs, still chimes the SUN, And his appointed path along Rolls with harmonious thundertone; With strength the sight doth Angels fill, Though none can solve its law divine; Creation's wonders glorious still, As erst they ...
— Gifts of Genius - A Miscellany of Prose and Poetry by American Authors • Various

... we glorify the guardian of heaven's realm, The Maker's might and the thought of his mind; The work of the Glory-Father, how He of every wonder, He, the Lord eternal, laid the foundation. He shaped erst for the sons of men Heaven, their roof, Holy Creator; The middle world, He, mankind's sovereign, Eternal captain, afterwards created, The land for ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... in that rule of faith, where Thou hadst showed me unto her in a vision, so many years before. And Thou didst convert her mourning into joy, much more plentiful than she had desired, and in a much more precious and purer way than she erst required, by having grandchildren ...
— The Confessions of Saint Augustine • Saint Augustine

... friend! reft of rest no repose I command, * And my grief is redoubled in this far land: Erst I had a father, a kinder ne'er was; * But he died and to Death paid the deodand: When he went from me, every matter went wrong * Till my heart was nigh-broken, my nature unmanned: He bought me a handmaid, a sweeting who shamed * A wand of the willow by Zephyr befanned: I lavisht ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton

... there, beneath the southern aisle, A tomb, with Gothic sculpture fair, Did long Lord Marmion's image bear, (Now vainly for its sight you look; 'Twas levell'd when fanatic Brook The fair cathedral storm'd and took; But, thanks to Heaven, and good Saint Chad, A guerdon meet the spoiler had!) There erst was martial Marmion found, His feet upon a couchant hound, His hands to heaven upraised: And all around, on scutcheon rich, And tablet carved, and fretted niche, His arms and feats were blazed. And yet, though all was carved so fair, And ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... words again and again. This was treating her at last as she ought always to have been treated! Anna did not like her erst fellow-country-man, and she considered that she had good reason for her dislike. Resentment against ingratitude is not confined to ...
— Good Old Anna • Marie Belloc Lowndes

... lend. Should e'er the fine-eyed maid to me be kind, Ah! surely it must be whene'er I find Some flowery spot, sequester'd, wild, romantic, That often must have seen a poet frantic; Where oaks, that erst the Druid knew, are growing, And flowers, the glory of one day, are blowing; Where the dark-leav'd laburnum's drooping clusters Reflect athwart the stream their yellow lustres, And intertwined the cassia's arms unite, With its ...
— Poems 1817 • John Keats

... in the passing of a day Of mortal life the leaf, the bud, the flower; Ne more doth flourish after first decay, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower Of many a lady and many a paramour! Gather therefore the rose 'whilst yet is prime, For soon comes age that will her pride deflower; Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time, Whilst loving thou mayst ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... acrimonious epithets from his late brethren. He became a monk at Reading, and filled a larger part upon a more spacious stage, and yet would have most gladly returned; but the strait cell was shut to him relentlessly and for ever. Andrew, erst sacristan of Muchelney, was another who left the Order for his first love, but his dislike of the life was less cogently put. It was not exactly that the prior could not brook opposition: but he hated a man who did not know his own mind, and nothing would induce ...
— Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln - A Short Story of One of the Makers of Mediaeval England • Charles L. Marson

... our boasted claim To nurse the precious juice 3. That maddened erst the Theban dame, With ...
— Magnum Bonum • Charlotte M. Yonge

... have piped erst so long with pain That all mine oaten reeds been rent and wore, And my poor Muse hath spent her spared store, Yet little good hath got, and much less gain. Such pleasaunce makes the grasshopper so poor, And ligge ...
— English Literature - Its History and Its Significance for the Life of the English Speaking World • William J. Long

... well! I pity AEgon. His cattle, go they must To rack and ruin, all because vain-glory was his lust. The pipe that erst he fashioned ...
— Theocritus • Theocritus

... glorious vagabonds, That carried erst their fardles on their backs, Coursers to ride on through the gazing streets, Sweeping it in their glaring satin suits, And pages to attend their masterships; With mouthing words that better wits had framed, They purchase lands and now esquires ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee

... it, praying that it would show to us the best ascent; and it answered not to his request, but of our country and life it asked us. And the sweet Leader began, "Mantua,"—and the shade, all in itself recluse, rose toward him from the place where erst it was, saying, "O Mantuan, I am Sordello of thy ...
— The Divine Comedy, Volume 2, Purgatory [Purgatorio] • Dante Alighieri

... and children rose, The rough barbarians softened. The warm hearth Their frames so melted they no more could bear, As erst, th' uncovered skies. The nuptial bed Broke their wild vigor, and the fond caress Of prattling children from the bosom chased Their stern, ferocious manners." —LUCRETIUS, "ON THE NATURE ...
— History of Human Society • Frank W. Blackmar

... touch the chords of joy, but low And mournful answer notes of woe; And the proud march which victors tread Sinks in the wailing for the dead. O, well for me, if mine alone That dirge's deep prophetic tone! If, as my tuneful fathers said, This harp, which erst Saint Modan swayed, Can thus its master's fate foretell, Then welcome be ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott

... the power of action. I feel a terror of action and am only at ease in the impersonal, disinterested, and objective line of thought." But then, again, with him "action" meant chiefly literary production. He quotes with approval those admirable words from Goethe, "In der Beschrankung zeigt sich erst der Meister"; yet still always finds himself wavering between "frittering myself away on the infinitely little, and longing after what is unknown and distant." There is, doubtless, over and above the physical consumptive tendency, an instinctive turn of sentiment in ...
— Essays from 'The Guardian' • Walter Horatio Pater

... the parent, as the parent had erst lulled the child. At last Mrs. Pryor wept. She then grew calmer. She resumed those tender cares agitation had for a moment suspended. Replacing her daughter on the couch, she smoothed the pillow and spread ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

... O my Hope, were grey, So far I viewed thee. Now the space between Is passed at length; and garmented in green Even as in days of yore thou stand'st to-day. Ah God! and but for lingering dull dismay, On all that road our footsteps erst had been Even thus commingled, and our shadows seen Blent on ...
— The House of Life • Dante Gabriel Rossetti

... heart, that erst did go Most like a tired child at a show. That sees through tears the mummers leap, Would now its wearied vision close, Would childlike on his love repose Who "giveth his ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various

... the grove is cool and green, And clear the bubbling fountain flows, Still shines the night's resplendent queen, As erst in Paradise she rose: The grapes their purple nectar pour, To 'suage the heart that griefs oppress; And still the lonely ev'ning bow'r Invites and ...
— Translations of German Poetry in American Magazines 1741-1810 • Edward Ziegler Davis

... to my bed for four months before I was able to rise and health returned to me. At the end of that time I went to the house where all this had happened and found it a ruin; the street had been pulled down endlong and rubbish heaps rose where the building erst was; nor could I learn how this had come about. Then I betook myself to this my sister on my father's side and found her with these two black bitches. I saluted her and told her what had betided me and the whole of my story and she said, "O my sister, who is safe from the despite ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... told, Sir Topaz moved, The youth of Edith erst approved, To see the revel scene: At close of eve he leaves his home, And wends to find the ruin'd dome ...
— Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett

... crop's luxuriance, here, Lest the scant moisture fail the barren sand. Then thou shalt suffer in alternate years The new-reaped fields to rest, and on the plain A crust of sloth to harden; or, when stars Are changed in heaven, there sow the golden grain Where erst, luxuriant with its quivering pod, Pulse, or the slender vetch-crop, thou hast cleared, And lupin sour, whose brittle stalks arise, A hurtling forest. For the plain is parched By flax-crop, parched by oats, by poppies parched In Lethe-slumber drenched. Nathless by change The travailing earth ...
— The Georgics • Virgil

... thou Achilles train'st, And new sworn soldiers' maiden arms retain'st, We, Macer, sit in Venus' slothful shade, And tender love hath great things hateful made. Often at length, my wench depart I bid, She in my lap sits still as erst she did. I said, "It irks me:" half to weeping framed, "Ay me!" she cries, "to love why art ashamed?" Then wreathes about my neck her winding arms, And thousand kisses gives, that work my harms: 10 I yield, and back my wit from battles ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe

... again. Colonel Glover must needs tell him; for he was bidden to fire a salvo from the five pieces of artillery he had mounted, three on his outer wall, and two at the top of his donjon-keep, to say nothing of hoisting the Royal Standard, which now streamed from the pole where erst had floated the rag that bore the arms of ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala

... now become a flat, prosaic routine of matter-of-fact; and sleep itself, erst so prolific of numerical configurations and mysterious stimulants to lottery-adventure, will be disfurnished of its figures and figments. People will cease to harp upon the one lucky number suggested ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... certain land there once did dwell (How long ago it needs not I should tell) At the king's court a great astrologer, Ev'n such as erst was I, but mightier And far excelling; and it came to pass That he fell sick; and very old he was; And knowing that his end was nigh, he said To him that sat in sorrow by his bed, 'O master well-beloved and matchless king, ...
— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson

... bade be dight Ten fair mules of snowy white, Erst from the King of Sicily brought Their trappings with silver and gold inwrought— Gold the bridle, and silver the selle. On these are the messengers mounted well; And they ride with olive boughs in hand, To seek the Lord of the Frankish ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various

... gate Didst thou the land of knowledge find. To merit a more glorious fate, In graces trains itself the mind. What thrilled thee through with trembling blessed, When erst the Muses swept the chord, That power created in thy breast, Which ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... great respect and entreated him with high regard and blessed him. Then said the Prince, "O assembly, I am in the presence of your worships, and be ye my witnesses. O Mubarak, thou art now freed and all thou hast of goods, gold and gear erst belonging to us becometh henceforth thine own and thou art endowed with them for good each and every. Eke do thou ask whatso of importance thou wouldst have from me, for I will on no wise let or stay thee in ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... moss-grown ruin[A] lonely stands, Which from the James, the Pilgrim may survey, Stretch alway forth its old, forsaken hands As if to beg some friend its fall to stay, And now the wild vine flaunts in greenness gay; Erst rose a Castle, known to deathless fame, Though now the mournful rampart falls away, Hither Virginia's hero-father came, To found a glorious state, and give ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley

... here— To fill the awful measure of their guilt— At noon, a deed was done, without a peer; A deed, unequalled since the world began, The masterpiece of sin, of crime the chief; At which the sun grew dark, earth's pillars shook, Chaotic gloom as erst o'erspread the land, And nature frowned at insults paid her God— The crucifixion ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 365 • Various

... the big man smiling no whit more than erst, "and that will make the fourth time. Depart then, fair sir, and take this word with thee that I wish thee good and ...
— The Well at the World's End • William Morris

... Jordan, Extol Him, oh angelic choir! Remember Him who stays the tempest, The stormy billows doth control, Who quickeneth the lifeless body, And fills the empty frame with soul. Behold! once more appears a wonder, The angry waves erst raging wild, Like quiet flocks of sheep reposing, So soft, so still, so gently mild. The sun descends, and high in heaven, The golden-circled moon doth stand. Within the sea the stars are straying, Like wanderers in an unknown land. The lights celestial in the waters Are ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. II. (of II.), Jewish Poems: Translations • Emma Lazarus

... religiously enshrined, Shall be flung by sacrilegious hands to the sunshine and the wind. And if ye all from ills so dire ask how yourselves to free, Or such at least as would not hold your lives unworthily, No better counsel can I urge, than that which erst inspired The stout Phocaeans when from their doomed city they retired, Their fields, their household gods, their shrines surrendering as a prey To the wild boar and the ravening wolf; [1] so we, in our dismay, Where'er our wandering steps may chance to carry us should ...
— Horace • Theodore Martin

... mountains stern! within whose rugged breast The friends of Scottish freedom found repose; Ye torrents! whose hoarse sounds have soothed their rest, Returning from the field of vanquished foes; Say, have ye lost each wild majestic close That erst the choir of Bards or Druids flung, What time their hymn of victory arose, And Cattraeth's glens with voice of triumph rung, And mystic Merlin harped, ...
— Some Poems by Sir Walter Scott • Sir Walter Scott

... you," said Roldan, proudly, anxious to rout the memory of his recent humiliation. "But come." And Rafael, too weary and bewildered to resent the authority of his erst-while rival, trudged obediently in ...
— The Valiant Runaways • Gertrude Atherton



Words linked to "Erst" :   formerly, erstwhile



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